I don’t think that the politics in and of themselves were an inherently bad decision. In the hands of another director it could’ve been very interesting. The “it’s called Star WARS” argument has always felt kind of reductive and trite to me (not meant to be a shot at you or your post, suspiciouscoffee). But anyway, the performances, the direction, the writing, the tone, and the CG-as-first-resort approach to the effects about covers it for me. I go through phases of weird fascination with them and their place in the larger SW universe so I’m unwilling to completely ignore/reject them like a lot of folks here, but I’d never call them good or even successful movies.